Thomas Edison’s Birthday.

He was born today in Milan Ohio in 1847, the seventh child. He was homeschooled by his mother, Nancy Matthews Elliot. His father was Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr.

Thomas Edison was born on February 11, 1847 in Milan, Ohio. His parents were Samuel Ogden Edison, Jr. and Nancy Matthews Elliott. Thomas was their seventh child. He started school late due to a childhood illness and was thrown out of school three months after he started. Teachers said his mind wandered, and his teacher called him “addled.”

His mother home-schooled him and taught him to read and encouraged him to experiment.

He was partially deaf and his first job was as a telegraph operator after he saved the child of a railroad official from being hit by a train. J.U. Mackenzie of Mount Clemens, Michigan the father of the child made Edison an apprentice and taught him to operate a telegraph.

Edison drifted to various railroad towns as a telegrapher, eventually coming to the metropolitan area where he created his first invention, an improved stock ticker, for which he was paid $40,000

Greatest inventions

His inventions include:

Electrographic vote recorder, which was Edison’s first patent, through a “yes” and “no” switch

Simplified telegraph, which didn’t require manually tapping out the message at the receiving end

Phonograph, which recorded and reproduced audible sounds using metallic foil on a cylinder

Carbon transmitter, which became the basis of telephone transmitters for more than a century

Practical electric lamp, as Edison’s carbon filament light bulb was the first commercially viable electric light. Previous versions weren’t as durable, and used more expensive materials, such as platinum

Electric lighting system, which was designed to maintain the same amount of electricity throughout the device

Motor that regulates electricity, controlling the supply of electricity between devices such as lamps

Electro magnetic brake, which was designed to stop vehicles on a railroad

Incandescent chandelier, which is the grouping of several incandescent lamps to create the candelier

Turn table for electric railway, which is an electric current that ran through the rails to reduce the chances of a short circuit

Ore separator, which separates magnetic and non-magnetic materials

Kinetographic camera, which showed successive photos in a rapid speed so as to make them appear to be moving

Rock crusher, using 2 hard rollers to crush rocks

Alkaline battery, which produced an longer-lasting battery

Fluorescent electric lamp, which used tungsten of calcium and strontium

Improved automobile, designing an automobile whose wheels were better aligned with the car

Family

On December 25, 1871, he married Mary Stilwell, and they had three children, Marion Estelle Edison, Thomas Alva Edison, Jr., and William Leslie Edison. His wife Mary died in 1884. On February 24, 1886, he married 19 year old Mina Miller. They had an additional three children, Madeleine Edison, Charles Edison (who took over the company upon his father’s death) and Theodore Edison.

Edison, who made the famous quote, “genius is 99% perspiration; 1% inspiration” eventually invented the light bulb: